Nyx Ops
by Plymethwill
Summary: With a new enemy on the horizon, demigods need to adapt to combat the new threat. Set some years after the Giant War. Percy, Annabeth and Leo go after the new threat to camp. M rating for the violence, otherwise T. Open to criticism. Features guns and fancy tech with a reason behind them.


**Chapter 1**

**Travis Stoll**

The warehouse was deserted, no mortals in sight. We were competing with my brothers of who got here the fastest, but there was something our instincts noticed we were missing as soon as we picked the lock. We decided to look around. The place had seen recent activity, there being no dust on the floor. All around the center of the room were these boxes covered in nylon. Connor got close to one and removed the cover of one medium-sized box.

"These are shipping crates. They usually have this to transport ammunition in the army." He said to our younger brother, who just nodded quickly and remained on the lookout. I could see that he was scared, being his first quest out of camp.

I went to the nearest crate to me and prodded it with a screwdriver. The top moved with a crunch and left a space to look into. Instead of the munition we were expecting to see from the narcs, I met a reflection similar to the one you get on the armory back in camp. I called Connor over and we managed to get the wooden top off. Inside were small boxes full of golden bullets. I grabbed my knife from my boot and compared it to a bullet, and it gave the same glow under the small amount of light filtering through the windows high up in the walls. I instantly got up and looked around just to see a golden camera blink red softly on the corner of the room. I recognized the model; the Hephaestus cabin had installed one outside bunker 9. It was mist-proof, and it probably already had our faces.

After a quick lookout around the rest of the warehouse, we regrouped outside the door of the warehouse. We weren't able to find much more than duct tape that smelled like cocaine, so we decided to head back to camp and report our findings at once, but before we got in the car, I heard a distant gunshot from behind us and felt a sharp pain in my leg. My brothers quickly grabbed me and got me in the back seat. Connor took a smoke grenade from his backpack and threw just outside the car, in case the sniper tried to take another shot at us. My younger brother Neil took out a square of ambrosia and some bandages while Connor drove us through New Bedford and towards New York. Connor remained on the lookout for any tails behind us and relaxed only when we arrived at Camp. The ambrosia worked as an anesthetic and I managed to fall asleep.

* * *

The next morning, I awoke in the infirmary and was greeted by a new face, a young Hephaestus camper I assumed from the grease on his shirt.

"Nasty bullet wound you had there. A 50. Caliber bullet coated in celestial bronze. The impact made the celestial bronze separate and act as shrapnel, so it acted as a shotgun. I am Brian Weiss, the new gunsmith and son of Hephaestus at your service." He bowed. "I have no questions for you since your brother answered mine not long ago. I was sent here to check the bullet they removed and bring you to the campfire." He said and stood up. "Can you walk? I shouldn't have said it like that, here take these crutches". He said with a grimace at his blunder.

"I am fine, it's just a limp." I said standing from the bed.

"After you were brought here last night, we received another group from another quest, well, some of them. One of them was in parts. The young Demeter girl didn't make it after last night, and the Satyr is missing a horn and a foot. The other camper was pretty shaken up and was extremely jumpy for the whole time we were there. The girl had similar wounds as your leg, but obviously yours not as bad as hers, huh?" He said, and I stopped and just looked at him. "Sorry, pretty insensitive I know, I think Leo influenced my coping mechanisms a lot and now I just try to make jokes." He said, I understood that its hard to see another camper die, but as I just got back from college I wouldn't be as exposed to all the missing campers that you see one day, the next you don't.

We reached the pyre, and I went towards my usual spot and found Connor near a Demeter camper, both pretty shaken up. He saw me and came to where I sat, and told me the girl that had died of a similar wound of mine when he arrived with me last night, and he saw her beside the bed they put me in. Connor hugged me and started crying silently. I patted him on the back and didn't say anything.

From the hill near Thalia's pine came two people that started sprinting towards the pyre as soon as they saw it. As they got near, I recognized that it was Percy and Annabeth. Those two probably didn't know the camper we lost, as they were in New Rome these days. They must have been scared it was either Connor or me since they knew we were on the quest, having talked with Annabeth yesterday to report our findings. I was right, since as soon as Annabeth saw me and Connor a look of relief was on her face, accompanied by a possible feeling of regret I think I saw. Percy was led by the arm towards us and his face lit up as soon as he recognized us. Most campers around us quieted down when they saw who had just arrived. Most campers here still thought of Percy as the camp leader, as most counselors had been in at least one of the two wars and carried on the hierarchy as answering to Percy.

Chiron came bounding over towards the pyre and stopped Percy and Annabeth before they could reach us. We couldn't hear what they said, but they had somber faces when they reached us.

* * *

**At the ping pong table.**

As was custom, I tried setting a ping pong ball on fire, and succeeded so Chiron had to intervene again and put the fire out. Leo looked at me with a small gesture of something that felt like respect. I looked at my brother who was the actual counselor of the cabin after I left for college and he was thinking hard, I could tell. When something is bothering him, he usually doesn't show it. But this was definitely something more serious than a camper dying, since we were almost sure it happened every two months. Once the Hypnos and Morpheus counselors came in. Instead of Chiron addressing the group, Leo sit up from beside me and took out a tablet from his belt. He set it on the table and a holograph appeared. It showed a picture of the crates we saw last night and one of my face from the camera I spotted. Next to my picture there was one of what seemed to be the other questers on a barn, with another shipment of ammunition, but theirs had rifles, grenades, knives, and even some celestial bronze swords. Next to that was the face of the Demeter girl that had died last night next to a masked mercenary that was holding her hostage. He had a sheet of celestial bronze around his torso, and he seemed to be a sort of mortal soldier.

"The quests sent by Zeus and Dionysus got back last night, but not without injuries. Although we managed to complete what was asked, we won't go into that. We are facing a new enemy. And this is what we know right now. Notus, god of the south wind has the Mexican cartels and a mercenary army sending ammunition to certain parts of the country, and probably to other countries as well. We don't know his motives, and we only know he is prepared to face any monster attracted to something he has acquired. We only have this picture of one of the mercenaries, but it seems they took precautions against blunt weapons with a thin film of celestial bronze armor. That would mean that the typical mercenary has become more deadly than expected, since a sword slash needs a lot more strength to cut the armor and Kevlar they are wearing. We seem to be up against a new breed of weapons it seems, that can penetrate our Celestial bronze plates if they are of a high caliber. And if you don't have the celestial bronze plating you can look at Travis' leg and see the mess it leaves even after a night with ambrosia. I lifted my shorts a bit so they could see the star pattern above my knee. The wound was closed now, but you could see a lot of red skin and scarring tissue like a mine field that seemed to reach my underwear, but I wasn't going to show them that here. I could probably get away with doing it to another counselor, but the situation was too serious for me to try. With your permission, I would like to present a plan I created to build a center of operations along with a new set of weapons. As we know this room is not enough to have war time meetings, now that there are so many counselors, so we need a new base. You guys can help with the construction, and in the meantime, my cabin will be developing new equipment and guns to help combat this threat. Now, before Percy can ask, no, swords aren't enough. You will get shot down before you reach a squad of mercenaries like this. We will be also setting up a shooting range. Now, any questions?

_Next Chapter, Percy has a dream of mercenaries wanting to harm his little sister, Poseidon wants to help stop them._


End file.
